670 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



arsenic well stirred up in it." It is needless to point out how dangerous 

 a remedy this is where children or dogs may be about. However, we do 

 not now advise this method. For some little time ago we were told 

 that there was a powder called Vall's Beetlecute, which is very inex- 

 pensive, and perfectly harmless both to men and animals, but which was 

 certain death to all cockroaches, beetles, ants, and such like. We were 

 somewhat sceptical about this preparation when it was first brought to 

 our notice, but after a careful trial we have found it really does effect 

 almost all that is claimed for it. It is essential that the powder be kept 

 dry, and at Chiswick we have scattered it on bits of thin slate or board 

 which we have laid in the stove and propagating pits at night, collecting 

 all the powder that is left in the morning before watering and syringing 

 were begun. Used in this way and repeated for several nights running 

 we have found it really very effective, not that the beetles or ants were 

 found dead, but that they were conspicuous by their absence just where 

 they had previously made their presence most objectionably realised. A 

 sixpenny tin will enable anyone to make a similar experiment, and if 

 they will only bear in mind to "keep their powder dry," and to repeat 

 the offer and supply of it for several nights running, we think their 

 experience will be the same as ours. It is a pleasure to know that this 

 powder was the invention of a lady, and she tells us it is as useful in the 

 kitchen as in the stove and greenhouse. 



Winter Manuring of Fruit-trees. 



Large fruit-growers usually manure their fruit-trees during the winter 

 months with farmyard manure, and the resulting crops amply repay them 

 for the labour and outlay. But all over the country a most valuable 

 fertiliser is practically wasted, and treated as a nuisance, viz. the contents 

 of cesspools, drainage from manure-heaps, cattle-sheds, stables, &c. In 

 country places one constantly sees all this invaluable liquid manure 

 running into drains, ditches, and brooks, instead of being collected in 

 tanks for putting on the land, and the general loss must be enormous. 

 In the winter months the supply of such liquid is usually large, and if 

 collected and put on the ground amongst fruit-trees once a week, or as 

 much oftener as may. be necessary to prevent waste, the soil is charged 

 with plant-food, which must react beneficially on the health and vigour 

 of the trees and on the quantity, quality, size, and cleanness of the crops 

 the following season. Many fruit-trees bear only in alternate years 

 probably only through exhaustion from producing a good crop of fruit, 

 and require a year to recuperate before they are able to bear another 

 crop. But trees that are kept healthy and strong by liberal supplies of 

 plant-food, given as above, would produce crops annually, unless the 

 climatic conditions happened to be adverse. There would be no danger 

 of the liquid being too strong for the trees, as, the roots being more or less 

 dormant in winter, injury would be almost impossible ; and another 

 advantage, especially with large standard trees, would be that the soil 

 would be moistened for a considerable depth, whereas for a number of 

 years, owing to the smallness of the rainfall, the soil has been com- 

 paratively dry a foot or two below the surface. We have given as much 



